


Egypt

by lodessa



Category: Firefly, Jossverse, Serenity (2005)
Genre: Dreams, F/M, Mythology - Freeform, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-27
Updated: 2005-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-10 01:52:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/93906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lodessa/pseuds/lodessa





	Egypt

Sometimes Simon can't sleep in his bunk at night; it feels too foreign, too much like being at summer camp. Simon never slept at any of the camps his parents sent him to from the age of 8 to the age of 14. He'd come home mosquito bitten and with dark circles under his eyes and be ill and sleep for about a week every time, and yet his parents always sent him the following summer, as if they'd forgotten. Everyone the Tams knew sent their children to summer camp, so out into the wilderness Simon went.

Sometimes Serenity feels like the woods to Simon, those nights he can't stay in his bunk and he makes his way to the infirmary in the middle of the night. He sorts through the supplies, organizing them until their familiarity soothes him; he's still afraid to leave though and he will lie down on the uncomfortably narrow operating table and drifts in and out of sleep, not sure what thoughts are dreams and which are fantasy.

Simon's thoughts often begin with his office back at the hospital, all its clean surfaces and neat compartments. As he starts to lose consciousness River usually joins him, laughing, happy like she was before everything happened, and yet not like before. When River left home she was still a child, but the River in Simon's mind is all grown up, well as grown up as anyone can be who laughs like that.

River takes his hand, dragging him towards the door; Simon follows her, their fingers interlaced. River leads him somehow, to the museum at the capital, the one their father used to take them to on the rare occasion that he had a day free from work. Simon wants to see the butterflies that the museum has collected, their brilliant wings suspended in glass, but River has other ideas. She lets go of his hand and runs down the hall, her laughter echoing in the high ceilinged passageway. Simon hurries after River; when he finds her, she is standing in the center of a large room, the sunlight streaming down on her from skylights overhead. River hold out her hands to Simon and he goes to her. There is a smile on her face.

"Do you know where we are River?" Simon asks.

"Of course, it's Egypt... the old one." River replies, "Do you remember what historians know about Egypt Simon?"

Simon looks around at the pyramid structures and a sand colored statue of a cat, a number of times taller than he or River. The museum is a good one, and Simon tries to remember the significance of these things. River walks backwards, leading them into a shallow stream the runs through the chamber. The water seems cold against Simon's skin and he realizes how hot he himself is.

The water is up to River's ribcage now; the current is getting stronger. Simon tightens his grip on her fingers, begging her not to leave him.

"I'll never leave you Simon." River promises, "That's why we came here."

Simon is bewildered; the water is moving faster and faster, trying to tear River from him. He grabs her around the waist, seeking to keep her with him. River does not seem concerned at all and continues to smile at him. Simon picks her up and starts to move back in the direction they came from and her expression changes.

"NO!" she says.

"But River..."

"The other way, we have to go the other way." River insists, pointing to the largest pyramid.

She has that look in her eye, so Simon fights his way through the water to the other side. Once they reach it River seems pleased.

"What is there that's so important here?" Simon asks her.

"The Pharaohs."

Simon vaguely recalls that a Pharaoh was an Egyptian monarch. He feels like there was something special about the Egyptian royalty, something that River is getting at, but it eludes him. River seems to be radiating light because she is so exuberant.

"Why are the Pharaohs important?" Simon asks.

"They are going to help us acclimate." River tells him and begins to walk towards the pyramid she indicated earlier. Her white, cotton, dress is shockingly transparent in its soaked state.

Simon studies the human body as a profession. He looks at them with a surgeon's eye, or at least generally he does. He does not look at River's long gazelle limbs like a surgeon. Simon remembers once he was out with his medical school classmates, having a few drinks, and he'd seen a girl out on the dance floor of the club they were at. Her impossibly long legs had drawn his attention, but the moment he caught a glimpse of her face it had been over; Simon would never admit it but, during that small moment that he had yearned for her, he has thought the stranger was his sister.

River is disappearing inside the pyramid, as Simon stands lost in thought, and he rushes to join her. When his eyes become accustomed to the darkness, Simon sees River spread out on the ground, looking up at the sides of the structure, which are covered in symbols. He sits down next to her on the floor and River shifts her gaze to him. Simon lowers himself down to the ground with her, gathering her body against his, holding her close, and suddenly he remembers what was important.


End file.
